1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for controlling communications conducted in multiple frequency bands so as to decrease an interference level between the communications. In particular, the present invention is directed to apparatuses, methods and computer program products providing interference control mechanisms by means of which communications conducted for example in an in-device co-existence scenario suffer less interferences from each other, in particular when using carrier aggregation.
2. Related Background Art
Prior art which is related to this technical field can e.g. be found in technical specifications according to 3GPP TR 36.816 (e.g. version 11.2.0).
The following meanings for the abbreviations used in this specification apply:
BS: base station
BT: Bluetooth
CA: carrier aggregation
CC: component carrier
CPU: central processing unit
CSI: channel state information
DL: downlink
DRX: discontinuous reception
eNB: evolved node B
GNSS: global navigation satellite system
GPS: global positioning system
H3: 3rd order harmonic distortion
IDC: in-device co-existence
IMD: intermodulation distortion
ISM: industrial, scientific, medical
LTE: Long Term Evolution
LTE-A: LTE Advanced
PSD: power spectral density
PUCCH: physical uplink control channel
PUSCH: physical uplink shared channel
RAT: radio access technology
RB: resource block
RF: radio frequency
SRS: sounding reference signal
SW: software
TX: transmission, transmitter
UE: user equipment
UL: uplink
WLAN: wireless local access network
In the last years, an increasing extension of communication networks, e.g. of wire based communication networks, such as the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), DSL, or wireless communication networks, such as the cdma2000 (code division multiple access) system, cellular 3rd generation (3G) communication networks like the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), enhanced communication networks based e.g. on LTE, cellular 2nd generation (2G) communication networks like the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), the General Packet Radio System (GPRS), the Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolutions (EDGE), or other wireless communication system, such as the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Bluetooth or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), took place all over the world. Various organizations, such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the WiMAX Forum and the like are working on standards for telecommunication network and access environments.
Generally, for properly establishing and handling a communication connection between communication elements such as a UE and another communication element or UE, a database, a server, etc., one or more intermediate network elements such as communication network control elements, support nodes or service nodes are involved which may belong to different communication networks.
In order to allow users to access various networks and services ubiquitously, an increasing number of UEs are equipped with multiple radio transceivers. For example, a UE may be equipped with LTE, WiFi, and Bluetooth transceivers, as well as GNSS receivers.
However, such a configuration may result in more complicated interference situations due to coexistence interference between those collocated radio transceivers. For example, due to extreme proximity of multiple radio transceivers within the same UE, the transmit power of one transmitter may be much higher than the received power level of another receiver.
Conventionally, it is tried by using filter technologies and sufficient frequency separation to avoid significant interference resulting from a transmit signal. However, for some coexistence scenarios, e.g. different radio technologies within the same UE operating on adjacent frequencies, current state-of-the-art filter technology might not provide sufficient rejection. Therefore, solving the interference problem by single generic RF design may not always be possible so that alternative methods have to be considered.